


For Want Of One Night

by Rinielle



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 21:39:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinielle/pseuds/Rinielle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cosette and Marius have been having a hard time getting any time to themselves. Between work, twins, friends and two aging relatives, it's a miracle to get even five minutes alone these days. So when Cosette's father disappears for one of his mysterious vacations at the same time as Marius' Aunt breezes back into town to take care of his Grandfather, and they both inexplicably have a weekend off, the only remaining obstacle between them and a weekend away is finding a capable babysitter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Want Of One Night

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: Marius and Cosette (modern AU) are going on a date and need a babysitter for their kid(s). Les Amis are hired and chaos ensues! It can be just a few of them or each of them in a different chapter or all at once!

“Marius!”

Marius barely has time to look up before he has an armful of Cosette barrelling into him at top speed. She hits him so hard that if he hadn’t been leaning against the kitchen counter they would probably have fallen backwards onto hard tiles, instead his back crashes hard into the counter – and that’s definitely going to bruise – but he can’t find it in himself to care as her arms fly around him and she kisses him full on the mouth. He doesn’t have time to respond as he’d like to, because she has pulled away moments later, hands still joined behind his neck as she grins up at him.

“Guess what!” she says excitedly, and for a moment he doesn’t realise that she’s said anything at all because her hair is sticking out in every direction from the loose bun she’d pulled it into this morning, her eyes are sparkling with excitement and her smile is blinding. She is radiant in his arms and he falls in love with her all over again; he has a habit of doing that, he knows. He smiles back down at her and leans forward to kiss her lightly on the tip of her nose; an action that always earns him a laugh and a peck on the lips in return.  
"What?" he asks as she leans back again. She pouts playfully at that, narrowing her eyes and shaking her head.  
"No!" she says, mischief dancing in her eyes, "You have to guess,"

They haven't done this in a while - the playful thing - real life always seems to get in the way and create more stresses than any couple should have to deal with. Juggling their jobs, their aging relatives, and two very excitable six year olds whilst trying to find time to help change the world is not an easy feat, and more than one of their friends has expressed admiration at the way they manage it; Grantaire has expressed an admiration that they haven't killed anyone yet, and he has his money on Enjolras being their first target when they snap. It's not that it's a bad life, in fact they neither of them would exchange it for anything in the world. They are devoted to their family, to each other, their relatives and of course their children, and they love their friends too and believe in what they are fighting for. However, in the rare quiet moments they get to themselves they're usually too exhausted to enjoy them fully - they tend to fall asleep the moment their heads hit a pillow - and privately they both wish sometimes that the world would just pause for a moment so they can just exist together for a time, just the two of them.  

Marius laughs, leaning more gently back onto the counter this time, and noticing for the first time a slight discomfort in his lower back; he ignores it in favour of tapping his chin in a mockery of thought. "The kids are asleep already?" she raises an eyebrow and shakes her head, no. "We just won a life time supply of chocolate?" another no and a shake of the head; it's not his fault that Emily is obsessed with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and he's read it five times this week alone. He throws his arms out in an over the top gesture "All the world leaders just announced world peace and equality, and everyone is just happily going along with it, and now Enjolras is freaking out because he has nothing to do?" she shakes her head again, with a laugh this time. He pauses for a moment "You're pregnant?" he asks somewhat timidly, and she pulls a face. They decided long ago that two was quite enough for them, and their two - bless them - were quite enough for anyone. "Then I give up," he says and she flicks him lightly on the chest.

"Boring!" she laughs and spins away from him, half dancing across the kitchen towards the calendar hanging on the fridge. She points to the next Saturday. "Day off," and then to Sunday, "Day off!" she says and watches as he puts it together in his head. The next weekend, the same weekend that he has off this week; two whole days, one after the other, where neither has to be at work. "And!" she adds as his smile widens, and she saunters back over to him, "I just saw your Aunt, and she's moving in with your Grandfather. And!" and Marius can't believe there could be anymore fortune to be had, "Papa is feeling so much better, that he's taking one of his mysterious holidays this weekend, he was telling me about it at lunch, so, no work, no visitations, a whole weekend," by now she is standing in front of him again, smoothing out imaginary creases on his shirt and looking up at him through half lidded eyes, the mischief was back in them, and there was a promising tone to her voice. He mirrors her expression, reaching out to curl some of her flyaway hair gently around his finger.  
“Well that does sound good,” he murmurs, and she hums in reply, “What were you thinking we could do with it?”

She’s giving him a look that promises an example of exactly what she plans to do with it, when a shriek fills the room and they both deflate somewhat. Cosette leans forward, to rest her forehead on her husband’s chest, with a sigh. “Mum! Dad! Ben took my train!!!” Emily’s screams fill the house.  
“They were playing so nicely,” she says wistfully, “I thought they were good for an hour at least,”  
“These are our kids you’re talking about,” laughed Marius, pressing a kiss to her hair, “It’s amazing the quiet lasted this long,” the shouting is getting louder now and at a particularly piercing shriek Marius presses another kiss to Cosette’s hair before stepping away from the embrace. “I’ll go.”

* * *

It takes almost half an hour of reasoning and a hefty dose of bribery to get the twins settled down in front of the television – sitting on separate chairs – and a further twenty minutes of supervised yelling before they can agree on what to watch. Finally, finally Marius manages to get them singing along – rather well for six year olds – to Hunchback of Notre Dame and he excuses himself back into the kitchen where he finds Cosette already half way through making dinner.

“I think we’ll be okay until they start arguing over who is better, Phoebus or Quasimodo,”  
“Phoebus is overrated,” sniffs Cosette, cutting up a carrot with vigour, “He was horrid in the book, give me a Quasimodo any day,”  
“I’d rather you have me,” smiles Marius, coming over to help. His hand is slapped away when he tries to pick up the potato peeler.  
“Uh uh,” says Cosette, immediately taking over the job, “We both know what a disaster you are in the kitchen, I’d rather have some potatoes left at the end of this. God knows it’s hard enough to get healthy food into them,” she shakes her head slightly. “What were we thinking? We barely get ten minutes to ourselves even when we do get time off work,”  
“We could get a babysitter,” Marius suggests, moving to turn the heat down on the stove where the water for the potatoes is already boiling over without them. Cosette turns one raised eyebrow on him, and he wishes he could do that, she only laughs at him when he tries.  
“Is it really wise? We get enough calls from the Daycare as it is; you want to trust them alone, in this house, with someone who doesn’t know them?”  
“What about someone who does know them?”  
“Marius!”  
“What? Combeferre could do it, he’s responsible,”  
“He’s got his thesis to hand in this month, I’m not begging him to risk valuable writing and study time,”  
Marius sighs, she’s right of course, and he’s not the only one; he knows that Jehan has his master’s dissertation to hand in next week, and Joly is finishing up his thesis too. It wouldn’t exactly be fair to drag them away so he and Cosette can have one night to themselves. Besides, with Joly would probably come Bossuet, and much as Marius loves Laigle like a brother, he’s not sure he wants to mix the guy’s bad luck with his children and house ornaments.  
“What about Courf? ‘Ponine’s always saying how good he is with Gavroche,”

Cosette looks thoughtful at that. Eponine’s little brother is a handful and a half that’s for sure, but she’s rather sure he listens to Courfeyrac more because he wants to be him when he grows up as opposed to any respect; she likes Courfeyrac well enough, but she’s not sure his methods of babysitting are appropriate for two six year olds. She’d ask Eponine, except she knows she works the bar on Saturday nights.  
“Maybe…” she says slowly as she pours all her remaining expertly cut vegetables into their pots and wipes her hands on her apron. “Is Feuilly about?” Feuilly is pretty dependable, after Combeferre he’s probably the most responsible of the little band of revolutionaries, he’d be the ideal choice.

“He’s working this weekend,”

Cosette sighs. Honestly Feuilly is working every weekend, and every week day at that, Marius doesn’t quite know how he does it. She thinks over their final two options. Bahorel is a no go from the start; she’s just quite simply not leaving her children under his care. Which leaves Enjolras and Grantaire, and she glances at her husband who arrives at the same conclusion she does at almost exactly the same time.

“Taire can be good with kids…” Marius tries weakly. Not that he has a huge amount of data on which to base that assumption. She knows Grantaire has a large family, of which he is the eldest, but having a lot of kid brothers and sisters does not a responsible babysitter make. Besides which, he’s still pretty fragile from quitting drinking cold turkey, and with Grantaire on edge about quitting, comes Enjolras on edge about it and when Enjolras is on edge over something he throws himself into his work. Likely as not leaving their children in their care would end in a revolution over bedtime and possibly weeks of the kids barricading themselves in their rooms over every perceived ‘oppression’.

“I think we may need to go back to the drawing board on this,” says Cosette, and after a moment Marius sighs in defeat and nods. “Can you set the table?”

It’s as he’s setting the final side plate down that the bickering starts in the living room, and he’s off in a moment to calm it down. This particular fight was over whether or not mum and dad would let them get a pet goat; with Ben coming down on the side of ‘nuh uh’ and Emily on the side of ‘yuh huh’. Really, allowing Enjolras to look after them might not be the best idea ever, but he supposes it might develop their argumentative style if nothing else. The debate carries through to the dinner table, until Cosette breezes over with dinner, announcing that goats don’t like noisy children who don’t eat their vegetables; which puts everything on hold as they start shovelling food into their mouths.  
“Maybe your Aunt could take them,” she says, keeping a close eye on both of them to ensure they don’t eat _too_ fast, “Ben, use your fork not your hands, please,” she urges, and Ben scowls slightly but picks up his fork obediently, as Marius rolls his eyes.  
“Believe me when I say Aunt Marianne is not a fan of small children,”  
“There has to be some way,” she sighs, picking at her own food, “It’s not like we get this kind of chance very often,” Marius gives her a small smile, and lays his hand over hers.  
“We’ll think of something,” he promises, and that’s when Emily throws a potato at Ben and hits him directly on the forehead, and they both have to move quickly to prevent an all out food war.

* * *

 

Bedtime is a reasonably tame affair for the Pontmercy household that evening. The kids manage to exhaust themselves playing hide and seek, at their parents’ suggestion; it’s a perfect remedy for bickering children as it keeps them far apart from each other for the most part. Unfortunately it also exhausts the parents themselves as they aren’t allowed to sit on the sidelines and just watch, but rather take it in turns to be the seeker so that debate doesn’t spark up. By the time Emily and Ben are curled up sound asleep in their respective beds, Cosette and Marius are half way to dreamland themselves.

Normally they’d curl up on the sofa and watch a film or the evening news, but they both know if they do that they’ll wake up with stiff joints; possibly Marius will roll onto the floor. So they opt for an early night instead. They are almost silent as they get ready for bed, just a few ‘scuse me’s’ as they shuffle around their bathroom and ‘sorry’s’ when they keep bumping into each other. All the promises and excitement from that afternoon have drained away by the time they curl around each other in their bed.

“Maybe if we asked ‘Ferre to just supervise Courfeyrac,” mutters Marius sleepily, “He could work on his thesis and just… be there to make sure things don’t get out of hand.” Cosette murmurs something that might be ‘Yeah okay’ but equally might be ‘No way’ in response to that; it’s too muffled by her pillow and Marius waits a few seconds to see if she has anything else to add.  
“Cosette?” he tries, but he is met only with deep steady breaths in return and he realises that she’s already asleep. He groans lightly and buries his face in the curve where her neck meets her back. How is it, he wonders as he drifts off himself, that between them they don’t have one responsible friend, who's good with kids, with enough time on their hands for one weekend?

He's jolted awake suddenly by a pained scream from the next room.

They really, really need this holiday. 

**Author's Note:**

> Most of my characterisation is coming from a weird mixture of the brick, the film and fandom headcanons so... sorry if it's off at all xD.
> 
> This is sort of an experimental chapter, to gage interest... I have a few ideas as to where it's going, and one way or another all the Amis will get in on the babysitting adventures at some point or other. If you like what you see so far, and/or you have any hilarious suggestions for things that could (and would) go wrong, I'm always up for adding more chaos, just drop me a comment =).  
> Also I really hope that it doesn't come across that Marius and Cosette are in any way unhappy... they're just very very tired.


End file.
